Pet Names
by Colt
Summary: Percy and Nico trying to take a break mid-mission. one-shot, no real plot, PercyxNico.


_Author's Notes: Nope, not dead! Just… busy. This was a short ficlet prompt I was given by lazchan on tumblr. (I spend more time on there than I should…) Her prompt was "Percy and Nico in Greece, prompt of 'You do know those guys are looking at us, right?'" Written in about 15 minutes with no beta reading and no plot, I apologize._

_My tumblr handle is colt-kun if you want to follow, although why is a question because I don't post anything of real value other than ficlets and dumb reblogs._

**Pet Names**

"You know what I like about Greece?" Percy asked. Nico paused, letting the menu drop to the table between them to raise his eyebrow. Percy held up the menu. "That everything's in _English_," he replied sarcastically.

"Then ask for a _Greek _menu," Nico retorted, and flicked the menu at the green-eyed boy. "When you asked in English for a menu, I'm sure they assumed that's all you spoke."

"It is all I speak," Percy grumbled, picking up Nico's menu and browsing it. "I just can't read it." Stupid dyslexia.

Nico made a noise and drank from his soda. The little outdoor cafe was separated from the pedestrian-heavy sidewalk by a small row of shrubberies. Percy liked them, they reminded him of Camp. Probably because they were on a mission in Greece, which spawned the immortal basis for Camp Half-Blood.

"I also speak Nico-grunts," Percy teased. "That was 'you're a dork but I like you for it, Perseus Jackson'."

"I never call you Perseus in my head," Nico retorted around the straw.

"What _do _you call me then?"

"Nincompoop, idiot, moron, simpleton, nitwit, fool-"

"Thank you Mr. Thesaurus." Percy leaned back, sprawling out his legs to bump against Nico's under the table. Nico looked up at him as Percy nudged Nico's leg with his sneaker. "I was hoping for something a little more… affectionate."

"Oh, they are affectionate. I don't tolerate any others with your level of genius." Nico's typically stoic face broke when Percy's foot went a lot further north.

"Then why do you tolerate me," Percy teased. Nico's eyes narrowed, but not at him.

"You do know those guys are looking at us, right?"

Percy gave a casual glance over as if he were surveying the crowd. Blending in was easier if everyone thought you were another stupid American tourist. The watchers were easy enough to spot, sullen and still, glaring back in their direction. And in the sweltered heat of the day, they were the only other people out here wearing leather jackets other than Nico.

Percy glanced back at the deathly pale boy across from him. "Please tell me it's because my foot it is in your crotch," he said pleasantly.

Nico grunted, and Percy understood it to mean _'Move it'. _Percy sighed, realizing lunch would be seriously delayed as he moved his foot and Nico stood up.

Percy dropped some money on the table to pay for their sodas, scooped up their knapsack and moved to fall in step with Nico. "Come on, let's get this as far away as we can from civilians."

Nico made an agreeable noise.

Percy stretched his arm across Nico's shoulders and pulled him in close. He could feel the bulge of Nico's Stygian iron throwing knives along his back, hidden just out of sight. Nico had switched to the knives for covert missions, because '_his _sword didn't have a convenient travel mode'.

Percy turned his head, pressing a kiss to Nico's temple and casting a glance behind them. Their enemy had multiplied to several. "We're being followed," he murmured into Nico's hair. "Closely." There was the slightest tilt of acknowledgement.

Nico smiled up at him, the perfect picture of adoring. As they passed an alley, Nico suddenly turned to Percy and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him down into a kiss. Percy followed as Nico started stepping backwards into the alley, chuckling a little under his breath.

When their stalkers turned down the alley, Riptide slashed through one taking off it's arm and two knives buried in the throats of the next two.

Nico moved to retrieve one blade, but quickly dropped it as the split blood burned his hand. "Harpies!" he shouted, before he was suddenly slammed into the ground by the one Percy dearmed.

"Nico!" Percy yelled, and his monster turned to dust with the deathblow. The alley had done it's job and bottlenecked the enemy, making them unable to attack as a whole.

Percy felt the ground mold under his feet as he whirled around, Riptide flashing in the hot Greek sun. He only caught a glimpse of a skeletal soldier wrestling a Harpy down, and was silently grateful for Nico's reinforcements as he turned the captured monster to dust.

A few minutes later, dust was all that was left. Percy thought he had some in his mouth and tried to spit it out.

"You could've left one alive for us to interrogate," Nico grumbled as he saluted his skeleton soldiers in thanks with his left hand, and they sank back into the ground.

Percy frowned as he looked at Nico's right hand, hanging at his side. Percy cast Riptide aside to take Nico's arm. The younger boy hissed as Percy rolled his hand over to look at the burn - through several layers of skin.

"_Di immortales_…" Percy swore. "Nico!"

"It's fine," Nico said sullenly.

"No it's not." Percy pulled one of the emergency water bottles out of their discarded knapsack, willing the water to wrap around Nico's hand and soothe the burns. Nico silently watched as the flesh slowly healed, and ate the ambrosia when Percy offered it to him.

"You do realize you killed all of our possible information leaks, dork," Nico grumbled around chewing. "And just made this mission impossibly harder."

"Yeah… but that means I can be on this Greek 'vacation' a little longer with my boyfriend," Percy teased as he finished with Nico's hand.

Nico tried to suppress it, but a genuine smile spread across his face - the slightly crooked, boyish one Percy fell in love with. "Stuck with you, _Perseus_? Lucky him."


End file.
